Starred Review

by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, illus. by Anne McLean

These seven stories from Colombian author Juan Gabriel Vásquez (The Sound of Things Falling), written between 1998 and 2002, are set in Europe where Vásquez was then in self-imposed exile.

Like all of Vásquez's work, the stories in Lovers on All Saints' Day are uncompromising in their focus on the prosaic lives of his characters. Most of them are middle-aged men, bewildered by the turn their lives have taken. They pivot around partners in fractured pairings, two lonely people

by Ben Brooks

At 15, Etgar Allison's desires are simple: lie in bed, drink Nesquik and wait for his girlfriend to come back from vacation. But when he finds out she's been hiding something from him, his sole desire suddenly becomes to forget her. Drunk on his dad's liquor, he finds himself in an "adult" Internet chat room, where he meets the middle-aged woman who'll inspire his descent through a rabbit hole of weird, cringe-worthy and strangely sweet adventures. Lolito, released in the U.K. in 2013, is a raw look into the

by Lori Nichols, illus. by Lori Nichols

In this original take on the back-to-school tale, Lori Nichols (Maple; Maple and Willow Together) steps into the shoes of the younger sibling left behind when her older sister begins kindergarten.

The author-artist depicts sisters Maple and Willow as inseparable all summer long: jumping rope, playing leap frog and mimicking squirrels. When Maple leaves for "big-girl school," Willow must figure out how to fill her day: "Home wasn't the same without Maple." Nichols gets Maple's voice pitch-perfect as she reports